Memorable Story Moms

ByNancy M. KendallJuly 14, 1998

Name the children's books that celebrate 130 years of mothers and their families.

1. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree. "Now my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden; your Father had an accident there; he was put into a pie.... Now run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out."

2. When Wendy returned diffidently she found Peter sitting on the bed-post crowing gloriously, while Jane in her nighty was flying around the room in solemn ecstasy. "She is my mother," Peter explained.... "He does so need a mother," Jane said. "Yes, I know," Wendy admitted rather forlornly; "no one knows it so well as I."

3. Little Sal's mother turned around and gasped, "My goodness, you are not Little Sal! Where, oh where, is my child?" Little Bear just sat munching and munching and swallowing and licking his lips. Little Sal's mother slowly backed away. (She was old enough to be shy of bears, even very small bears like Little Bear.) Then she turned and walked away quickly to look for Little Sal."

4. The rushes were little hollow tubes.... Laura and Mary pulled them apart to hear them squeak. Then they put little ones together to make necklaces. They put big ones together to make long tubes.... Ma laughed when Laura and Mary came to dinner and supper, all splashed and muddy, with green necklaces around their necks and the long green tubes in their hands. They brought her bouquets of the blue flags and she put them on the table to make it pretty. "I declare," she said, "you two play in the creek so much, you'll turn into water-bugs."

5. Touched to the heart, Mrs. March could only stretch out her arms, as if to gather children and grandchildren to herself, and say, with face and voice full of motherly love, gratitude, and humility - "O my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!"